I found this while I was browsing the news and thought it a good supplement to the faun's thread about trolls and snitches...
Internet trolls who start arguments and make inflammatory remarks to provoke responses online have, unsurprisingly, been found to be psychopaths in real life too.
The latest trolling study from the University of Manitoba in Canada involved two surveys that showed people who troll tend to be sadists or psychopaths.
"Trolling correlated positively with sadism, psychopathy and Machiavellianism, using both enjoyment ratings and identity scores," wrote study author Erin Buckels in the journal Personality and Individual Differences.
The researchers found sadism, which is the tendency to derive pleasure from causing others pain or humiliation, was the trat most commonly associated with internet trolling.
Dr Brent Coker, a University of Melbourne online consumer psychologist, told ninemsn that trolls are like the Joker in the Batman movies.
"Their motives are similar – it's somebody who prefers to remain anonymous and they ridicule other people for their own humour," he said.
"People who engage in trolling behaviour are not usually normal in terms of their personality and have inbuilt sadistic traits."
Dr Coker said the internet has provided a forum for these people to derive pleasure, but it's difficult to know whether cyberspace has caused more sadists, or whether the sadists have always been there, but acting in less obvious ways.
"Prior to the internet, they would have done things like malicious gossip –spreading horrible rumours or horrible secrets about other people behind their backs with the intent of causing damage against other people for their own enjoyment," he said.
"Usually human beings feel bad when hurting other people. Sadists don't have that – they don't feel remorse or guilt when they hurt other people. They actually get enormous personal satisfaction and enjoyment from what they do."
Comedians Roy and HG are currently under attack online for their shows about the Sochi Winter Olympics.
"I don't know how they keep so upbeat and happy when they are copping those comments," Dr Coker said.
Scottish speed skater Elise Christie said she almost pulled out of the Sochi games after copping online abuse following a collision last week.
The Australian swimming team blamed their poor performance at the London Olympics on too much time spent on social media, which exposed them to trolls who distracted them and shook their confidence.
From Here
People take way too much notice of what perfect faceless strangers type up to them.
